Journal Poll: New Mexicans not enthusiastic about state economy - Gillian Barkhurst, Albuquerque Journal
Few New Mexicans think the state economy is good or excellent, according to results from the Journal Poll released this week.
A plurality of New Mexicans rated economic conditions as “fair” at 43%, while 38% of those polled said the economy was “poor.” Overall, 16% ranked the economy as “good,” while a meager 1% of voters said the economy was “excellent.” These opinions transcended demographics, with New Mexicans voicing similar opinions regardless of race, sex and region.
But dissatisfaction with the economy is nothing new; in fact, opinions had barely budged since the Journal last asked the question in 2024.
And some New Mexicans are more concerned than others. Those without a college degree were more likely to rate the economy as poor at 46%, with those numbers dropping off the more education the voter attained.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
US Forest Service closing 23 research facilities as part of reorganization under Trump - By Matthew Brown, Associated Press
The U.S. Forest Service is closing 23 research and development stations in more than a dozen states as part of an organizational overhaul under President Donald Trump that is intended to trim costs and concentrate the agency's resources in Western states, officials said Thursday.
The work being done at the research stations will continue at other sites, Forest Service Associate Chief Chris French said in an interview. An additional 41 research facilities that faced possible closure will remain open after local officials and members of Congress raised concerns about the reorganization, which was announced in March.
"Our primary goal was to get our facilities costs under control," French told The Associated Press. "We're not closing any ongoing science activities. We're not closing any of the experimental forests that are important to our researchers."
Research by forest service employees ranges from studies on invasive species and protecting water resources to how wildfires are changing as climate change dries out and heats up forests.
Bill Avey of the National Associated of Forest Service Retirees, an advocacy group, said the forest service has long struggled to pay for all its facilities and some opportunities for consolidation exist. But Avey, who worked at the service for four decades, said its current leaders including Chief Tom Schultz need to defend the importance of forest research more vocally.
"He should be doing a much better job of pushing back and justifying and explaining some of the research work," Avey said. He added that the 41 facilities being retained likely would have closed as well if not for pushback from his group and others.
The 95 employees at the research stations slated for closure will be shifted to other sites within their commuting areas, Forest Service Communications Director Chad Douglas said. The closures — along with previously announced plans to shut regional offices in Atlanta, Milwaukee and Portland — will save about $16 million, officials said.
The reorganization also includes moving the agency's headquarters from Washington to Salt Lake City. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has said the move, expected to be completed by next summer, will bring leaders closer to the landscapes they manage and the people who depend on them.
Conservation groups have criticized the changes, warning that they could reduce access to forests and threaten wildlife habitat and clean air and water.
Federal data shows that the Forest Service has lost about 6,000 employees, or about 15% of its workforce, during Trump's second term as part of the Republican administration's sweeping cuts to agencies that oversee the nation's natural resources.
During Trump's first term, he moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, citing many of the same reasons, including a desire to put top officials closer to the public lands they oversee. Former President Joe Biden's administration reversed course, returning the bureau's headquarters to Washington after two years.
Top New Mexico Senate Republican calls on Rep. Romero to resign from Epstein commission, House seat - Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
New Mexico Senate Minority Leader Bill Sharer (R-Farmington) on Thursday called on the state lawmaker leading the state’s commission dedicated to investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s activities in New Mexico to resign.
Rep. Andrea Romero (D-Santa Fe), a licensed attorney, has come under increasing scrutiny after Republicans in the state Legislature called for an ethics investigation into whether she was breaking state law by holding a part-time job with the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office. While Romero had previously said that she obtained permission to take the job, Attorney General Raúl Torrez earlier this week said that she relied on a 2024 opinion from his office that was “read more broadly than intended.”
The 2024 opinion concerned whether state Rep. Andrea Reeb (R-Clovis) could work as a special prosecutor in the state’s case against actor Alec Baldwin. While it found she was allowed to do so, she left the job after Baldwin’s attorneys argued it was unconstitutional for a sitting lawmaker to work as a special prosecutor. Reeb currently also serves on the Legislature’s special Epstein investigatory subcommittee.
Romero resigned from her job with the local prosecutor’s office earlier this week. In a statement issued via a New York-based public relations firm that holds a contract with the Epstein “truth commission,” Romero defended her employment there and accused Torrez of seeking to disrupt the commission’s work.
Sharer, on Thursday, criticized Romero for issuing that statement to the press via the Epstein commission’s contracted communications firm. According to the Legislature’s website, that contract with New York-based Dini von Mueffling Communications began on Aug. 11, via the Legislative Council Service, and has a cap of $60,000.
“The evidence suggests she used taxpayer dollars appropriated for a truth commission investigating one of the most notorious predators in modern history to instead pay a contractor to clean up her own political mess,” Sharer said. “That is not what that money was for, and it is exactly the kind of self-dealing New Mexico’s Governmental Conduct Act was written to stop.”
Sharer added that he has asked the State Ethics Commission to investigate.
Neither Romero nor Dini von Mueffling Communications responded to requests for comment. The other three members of the Epstein commission also did not respond to requests for comment.
Ruidoso Downs has agreement to move top races to Texas - David Glovach, Albuquerque Journal
New Mexico’s richest horse races — and some of the state’s most prominent — are lined up to move to Texas next year.
Ruidoso Downs Race Track owners Johnny and Jana Trotter, and Global Gaming Solutions have an agreement in place for the Quarter Horse Triple Crown Series to run at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, in 2027, it was announced Thursday. The All-American Super Select Sale and the Ruidoso Downs Hall of Fame will also be part of the move.
A deal is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks.
The Quarter Horse Triple Crown Series consists of the $1 million Ruidoso Futurity, the $1 million Rainbow Futurity and the $3 million All-American Futurity, known as the richest quarter horse race in the world.
For more information on this story, visit the Albuquerque Journal website.
New Mexico groups, residents call on state leaders to buy stake in state’s largest electric provider —Joshua Bowling, Source New Mexico
More than 50 progressive organizations and 1,400 New Mexico residents signed a petitionthis week to state leaders and both gubernatorial nominees urging them to consider buying a stake in the state’s largest electric provider.
Proceedings for private equity firm Blackstone Infrastructure to take over TXNM Energy Inc., which owns PNM and provides most of New Mexico’s electricity, have encountered several setbacks since they were first made public in 2025. Residents have packed the room at public comment meetings to oppose the proposed $11.5 billion acquisition, and the state Public Regulation Commission recently found that a $400 million stock sale between Blackstone and TXNM violated state law.
Utility regulators ordered the two sides to undo the illegal stock sale. After paying Blackstone back, TXNM intends to sell $400 million of its stocks. Opponents to the private equity takeover say it’s an opportunity for the state to invest in its own electrical infrastructure.
“Instead of automatically handing this investment opportunity back to Wall Street, New Mexico should seriously evaluate purchasing a significant stake in our own largest electric utility,” Mariel Nanasi, executive director of the clean energy organization New Energy Economy, said in a statement. Her organization joined the Center for Biological Diversity, Youth United for Climate Crisis Action and more than 50 others in signing the petition.
A spokesperson for the State Investment Council said its leaders needed “additional analysis and review of what’s being suggested” before commenting on the proposal.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in July wrote an op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal opposing the proposed purchase and contended that the state needs “well-regulated private capital to realize our energy goals.” A spokesperson for Lujan Grisham on Wednesday told Source NM that her position has not changed.
However, New Mexicans will elect a new governor in the Nov. 3 general election.
On the campaign trail leading up to the June primary election, both Democrat Deb Haaland and Republican Gregg Hull often answered questions about PNM’s pending merger by saying they believed any deal needs to protect ratepayers.
In a statement to Source NM, Haaland, a former U.S. representative and Interior secretary, said that “there are both successful and unsuccessful models of public utilities across the country,” but stopped short of endorsing a potential state purchase.
“I am firmly in favor of making our utilities more accountable to ratepayers, more affordable for consumers, driven by more renewable energy for our environment and more beneficial for New Mexicans,” she said. “My priority as Governor will be to ensure we support families, protect consumers, and keep costs down.”
Hull, the former mayor of Rio Rancho, struck a similar tone.
In a statement, he said he doesn’t oppose a private acquisition, but wants the terms of any such deal to protect the company’s ratepayers.
“Whatever happens with TXNM has to work for New Mexico ratepayers and taxpayers first, not politicians or private equity,” he said. “That means the PRC’s ruling on the illegal stock sale gets enforced in full, and it means this coalition’s buy-in proposal gets the same independent scrutiny I’ve demanded of the Blackstone deal itself before a single public dollar moves.”
New Mexico Attorney General backs groups challenging Project Jupiter - KUNM News
Thursday, Attorney General Raúl Torrezsupported environmental groups challenging the Project Jupiter data center, arguing to the state supreme court that state’s own agencies did not follow legally required processes.
The two environmental groups — the Center for Biological Diversity and the Santa Fe-based New Energy Economy — had filed petitions last month challenging proceedings for the data center under construction by Oracle and OpenAI in Doña Ana county.
So, in the first of two filings supporting those challenges, Attorney General Torres argued that nothing justified the New Mexico Environmental Department to bypass the discovery and due process protections for the environmental groups challenging Project Jupiter permitting.
In the second filing, Attorney General Torres argued that the state supreme court should direct the State Engineer to immediately schedule a hearing – as required by statute and the New Mexico Constitution – regarding groundwater appropriations to support Project Jupiter’s construction.
State deadline nears for septic system assistance - Staff Report, Taos News
Homeowners in the state who need to replace a broken or failing septic system have an opportunity to receive financial assistance to address those issues – but need to act soon.
The Taos News reports that applications for the Liquid Waste Disposal Assistance Fund are open until tonight.
The program under the New Mexico Environment Department is intended to support qualified low-income homeowners who have broken or noncompliant septic systems. The program may also help fund connecting to a main sewer system.
It is expected to fund at least 12 projects in the 2027 fiscal year. Unaddressed septic issues can be threats to groundwater, public health and the environment.
Those who plan to apply for the program can apply online at the New Mexico Environmental Department’s Liquid Waste Assistance Fund website.
Forms must be submitted by midnight. Applicants will need to provide documents to prove property ownership, residency, income, and identification.
